Baba Ramdev to the rescue? Archery association wants yogi to help archers with mental toughness

The Indian women’s recurve team comprising of Deepika Kumari, Rimil Buriuly, and Laxmi Rani - clinched a silver at the recently concluded World Championships, confirming their place in Rio for the Olympic Games.

The gold, however, was in their sights. Despite surging into a 4-0 lead, the trio lost the World Championship final 4-5 to Russia in a nerve-wracking encounter. If only they were able to dig in a little deeper into their mental reserve. If only.

“Archery is all about mental toughness. It is a sport where a calm and composed mind is necessary to success. So keeping that in mind we are discussing with Sports Authority of India (SAI) and the Sports Ministry to have yoga classes for the archers,” AAI president Vijay Kumar Malhotra said, while the archers were being felicitated in New Delhi for their exploits at the Worlds in Copenhagen.

Having decided that Yoga is the way forward for improving the mental toughness and enhancing their chances of grabbing a medal or two in Rio next year, who better than India’s most famous Yogi, Baba Ramdev to take up that mantle.

In a report published in dna Malhotra confirmed that Baba Ramdev has been approached to train the archers, and he has been asked to do it for free.

“I will speak to Baba Ramdev in a day or two. I am sure he will help our archers,” Malhotra told dna before adding, “AAI doesn’t have funds. The government has suspended us.”

It is not the first time Indian archers will get to work on the mental aspect of the game as in April earlier this year some top archers underwent a 15-day government sponsored stint with US-based tennis player-turned-mental trainer Lorenzo Beltrame, who worked with some elite tennis stars including Jim Courier and Pete Sampras.

Deepika Kumari, India’s poster-girl of Archery, suffered a crushing blow at Lord’s in 2012 when she was upset in the very first round in London Olympics. Going in to the Games, she was World No. 1 and was seen as a sure-shot medal prospect.

“In the last Olympics I was not that experienced. I couldn’t enjoy my game because I lost the first match. But now I have become more matured and have gathered valuable experience. I have improved a lot,” Deepika said.

“Archery is a mental game,” she said and added that Yoga can be of ‘immense help’ in gaining that extra edge.

Her recurve teammate Rimil Buriuly is singing from the same hymn sheet too. “If Baba Ramadev is going to train us, then nothing like it,” she said.

With PTI inputs